Reading Habits Survey: Halfway Point 2015

July 29, 2015

Fair warning: this may be the geekiest post I will ever write! It’s no secret that reading is my favorite hobby. I’m obsessed with books and my downtime is spent in two ways: reading and blogging. The reason I can read as much as I do is because I make time for it. Whenever people express jealousy for how many books I read, there’s not too much I can say. My life isn’t very exciting (at least to other people, I would guess) and I have a lot of downtime that allows me to read.

Anyway, this year, I’ve taking my love for reading to a geeky level as I’m keeping a detailed spreadsheet of the books I read. My spreadsheet (which I’m happy to share with anyone who is interested!) keeps track of much more than just the title, author, and my rating, but also the genres, formats, where I’m getting them, why I’m reading them, how much they cost me (if applicable), and more. It’s been so fun to keep track, and I thought today would be a good day to survey my reading habits for the first half of 2015. This will be similar to the reading habits survey that Book Riot puts out once a year, which is basically where I got my idea for this post.

How many books read? 48

How many pages read? 15,866

What percentage of books read has been in print? E-books? Audiobooks?

46% print books

44% e-books

10% audiobooks

I’m not too shocked about that – I read about the same amount of print books as I do e-books (I always opt for the e-book, but if the wait list is too long at my library or they don’t have the e-book version, I’ll request the print copy.) Also really happy with my audiobook listening in the first half of the year! This is the first year I’ve really gotten into audiobooks and I find them a really fun way to consume literature.

How many books were bought? I wound up buy 7 of the 48 books I read, which amounts to 15%. The library is my best friend when it comes to reading – I don’t spend a ton of money on books!

How much money has been spent? $40.43. This amounts to spending $6.74 a month on books or 84 cents per book. I’d say that’s a good average!

What are the percentage breakdowns for the genres read?

Fiction – 25%

Nonfiction – 20%

Mystery – 19%

YA – 13%

Chick lit – 13%

Romance – 10%

It shocks me that nonfiction is my second-most read genre. I have been trying to read at least one nonfiction book per month, and I’m doing more than that, it seems. I’m also surprised that romance novels are my lowest read genre. I used to solely read romance novels, so this shows I am really trying to diversifying my selections.

How many diverse reads? 8 – 17%. Something I still need to work on, but it’s getting better!

Where did I get my books?

Overdrive (e-books and audiobooks): 15

Library (physical copies of books): 12

Amazon: 9

Free, in exchange for a review on my blog: 8

Through postal book club: 2

As gifts: 2

Over half of my books were from Overdrive or the library. How I love the library so! 🙂

Some other random stats:

Most books read in one month: March (10)

Least books read in one month: February (6)

Book with the most pages: The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro (469 pages)

2. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – This book dealt with some heavier subjects (domestic violence and bullying), but it did so in a light-hearted manner. I fell in love with the characters and I thought the way the author wrote about domestic violence was vividly real. It wasn’t over-the-top, but I think a lot of people would be able to relate to it (sadly!).

3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – I am so glad I did I finally read this book! It’s such a special novel. It is written from the perspective of Ponyboy, a 14-year-old boy who is in a gang called The Greasers. The novel was so easy to read and really fun to follow – the language was phenomenal. It was sad in parts, but I really enjoyed my experience reading it.

How many books did you read in the first half of 2015? Do you use the library, or do you buy the majority of your books?

This was fun to read! I love that you keep such detailed stats on what you are reading! I have a spreadsheet but I only track the title/author, how I got the book (library (physical or eBook), postal book club, already owned, purchased), and whether it counts towards my 2 reading challenges (the book riot one and a personal challenge to read 12 books I already own). I think that I read about 41 books in the first half of the year, which is a good amount for me. And I get most of my books from the library although I have been trying to read more books that I own as I have some that I bought YEARS ago.

I don’t keep stats that detailed. Is this through June or July? I’ve read 77 books through July, with June being my heaviest reading month with 22 books (and half of one I started the month before). I’ve listened to about 10, getting more and more into audiobooks recently. 90% have been books from the library and probably 95% have been ebooks/e-audiobooks. I can’t think about how many pages that is since most of them are 250-300 pages, some more and some less. 19,250-23000? Yikes.

I really, really want to read Everything I Never Told You. It’s in my cart for my next Thriftbooks order. That is where I get most of my books, so they wind up being around $3-4 per book unless it’s a recent release. Those are a little more. If I go to a bookstore I only buy books on sale (I got 4 books at B&N yesterday and paid $2.58 because I had a $25 gift card). I never use my library and I really need to start. I love collecting books but I am running out of room. I want to weed through and donate any books I didn’t enjoy/won’t ever read again. I might keep a spreadsheet next year! I have a handwritten list of each book/author/rating/date finished. I am thinking about setting a page goal next year rather than a book goal because I am finding myself turning down bigger books because I’m too focused on the # of books I’m reading (and trying to get to 50 is proving to be a massive undertaking for me).

This is SO interesting to read! I have a spreadsheet tracking my Read Harder challenge reads but other than that I only keep track of my books through Goodreads. I would say I only read 10% or so of ebooks though because my e-reader is old and crappy and doesn’t work with overdrive so I can’t borrow ebooks from the library and the majority of the reading I do is from the library so that makes the majority of it print reading. That said, I do sign into my moms ereading account a lot and read her books though because she buys a lot of books! I have also been making a huge effort to read more diverse books since listening to the Book Riot podcast regularly.

The Outsiders was one of my favorite books as a kid. I still have the copy of the paperback my mom gave me. Never giving that one up! I haven’t been reading as much as I would like the last 6 weeks, but I think that will be changing soon. I’m loving what I’m reading right now but I don’t have as much time to devote to it as i would like (the latest by Sara Gruen). I need to work on that before it is due back at the library 🙂

Meet Stephany

Hi, I'm Stephany! I'm a 30-year-old single lady, living in Florida. I love taking cruises, reading, writing, and spending time with family and friends. I am an introvert and a Highly Sensitive Person, and I'm quite proud and pleased with the quiet life I lead. On this blog, you will find stories about my life, book reviews, travel experiences, and more. Welcome!

Let’s Connect

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.